Clegg: Church and state should be separated

The Queen should no longer be head of the Church of England, according to Nick Clegg, who called for greater separation between the two entities.

The atheist deputy prime minister said he thought the Anglican Church would “thrive” if it was not “inhibited” by its involvement in the state.

“In the long run, having the state and the church bound up with each other, as we do in this country, I think it would be better for the church and better for people of faith and better for Anglicans if the church and the state were, over time, to stand on their own two separate feet,” he said.

However, the idea was rejected by David Cameron, who said the idea was a long-term Liberal idea but not a Conservative one.

He added leaders of other faiths thought the church-state link make the country more tolerant.

The PM said: “I think our arrangements work well in this country. We are a Christian country, we have an established church.”

What do you think?

Does the church still have a place in the British constitution? Is the sharp drop in the number of people identifying as Christian in the most recent census (72% to 59%) enough to trigger the move?